Container Living - The New Frontier
Move over mobile homes, container living is here to stay.
Once confined to scrap metal yards or landfills shipping containers are quickly becoming the darlings of the modern architectural world. Easily transportable, widely available and practically indestructible, these metal boxes just may be an answer to the worldwide housing crisis.
Oh, and they're cheap. A used container can be bought for around $2,000. Not bad, considering the average price of a house in California has just surpassed $400k. With such affordable pricing, architects and designers have had ample room to experiment, resulting in much chicer and more forward-thinking designs than the dissected mobile homes once traveling the US highways.
Architect Adam Kalkin has received much notoriety for the high design of his Quick Houses. Based around the construction of five shipping containers and coming in at a cost of just $100 per square foot, multiple floor plans are available for customization boasting many of today's modern appetencies; stainless steel kitchens, wood floors, and walk-in closets.
Even big business is jumping on the bandwagon. Hospitality giant Travel Lodge has recently finished construction on a 100 room hotel made by cleverly fitting 88 recycled shipping containers together. The Uxbridge, England building cost much less and was finished more quickly than new construction.
Although in truth there are a finite number of containers available for recycling, that number is in the millions, making container construction a viable alternative in worldwide building. Looks like we may all be sleeping in a box sooner than we thought.
Veronica,
Sweet post! Its amazing what you can do with shipping containers. I would live in that space in a heartbeat. Its recycled and the price is definitely more affordable than various alternatives. Thanks for the info!.Garrett
Posted by: Garrett | June 24, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Oh I love shipping containers. While in school we participated in a design contest to design a livable use for these boxes, and it was too much fun! If I had some land, you better believe I would be using these things.
Posted by: Adrienne Breaux | June 24, 2008 at 01:18 PM
Great article! I really love all the new design that is coming out. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Sandra | June 25, 2008 at 10:13 PM